Blog 2.0

It has been a while since we firstly presented the benefits of drone deliveries. Since then, we have been busy, really busy working on our prototype.

We got important comments from the community that motivated us to keep working on it. And finally we have something to show!

We have been working on this technology since late 2013, after much designing, redesign, proof of concepts and a lot of software development, we have reach a functional prototype which we think is the best solution for logistics problems!

It is a hybrid three propellers small UAS capable of long range and heavy payload operations. We hope you appreciate the incredible amount of hours dedicated to reach a final design and build the final pre-production prototype.

Although it may seem science fiction, we can say that deliveries thought drones are becoming real. It is known that Amazon and Google are working on it and that Matternet and Flirtey are making amazing progress (like this). They took the initiative and now DBX Drones is developing the technology that will contribute to make a parcel delivery system by air possible!

This development is intended for parcel deliveries and related companies, but we also want to open it to the consumers market (especially to the open source community) because it is fully modular (you could easily configure your vehicle) and it has a remarkable performance in terms of endurance and payload. See the definition of the product here and all its options!

Who knows which use you may find for it! Would we see peer-to-peer parcel sending in the future? We put the design and control software effort and you put your imagination!

The consumer option would be fully compatible with the Dronecode foundation initiative. See the survey to get more details.

We are already working on the final production design and need you help to know how interesting is for you, not only as possible owner, but as a citizen that may enjoy the service of drone deliveries!

We have an enormous amount of work still to do, so that we offer the best possible product and find enough funding to launch the production. Anyway, we will show soon some more progress.

We know this is the developer community and your feedback is very valuable. That is why we would appreciate your comments in our progress! Please take our survey!

What do you think? Do you think this technology could make a parcel delivery by drone really possible? Would you take advantage of the great performance of this hybrid vehicle?

We would love to know from you and start a conversation where all of you can participate and contribute to this open source development.

@Vega Tech Group LLC Well, as you said this business is a huge cake, we don't want to get all of it just a piece. Matternet just announced an important program with Swiss Post, that encourage us!

About the calculations: Yes you are right. I didn't specify well. That is the cost of the final (last mile) operation: bring the package to the costumer. The difference is mainly about the amount of mass you have to move to bring that package somewhere and how much energy (money) you spend.See for example this: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6827242

Just for long final journeys (It is about 20% of all final journeys in Spain, country dependent): Typical cost in USA is about 6$ and in Spain is about 4.2€. DBX can do it for 0.4€ (Matternet say 0.24$)

Of course there is a lot of missing data that make those numbers fit somewhere on the business model of a parcel company but, that is the best we could do it without data (we asked many times for that data already)

There is no doubt UPS would generate serious revenue for you, would they buy your product, very doubtful. UPS has had a development program going with major players such as Camcopter, Trimble, Boeing, plus others.

The big package companies are playing with the big drone makers.

You are missing a great deal of information on your price calculations. 30 cents a delivery would be impossible. That is less than a 1st Class Stamp. Your delivery company customer can not price below 1st Class & can only charge by the pound, that is Federal law. Your customer must comply with Federal DOT price schedule regs on package delivery.

Next comes sorting, handling, and distribution. What happens to the package when it is not out for delivery? There are costs here as well.

There is a tremendous amount of information any package delivery company will have to adhere to.

@Vega Tech Group LLC Thanks for the advice!It seems that small business are becoming interested on it but the real business (in the order or trillions of USD) is in packages delivery companies.Imagine reduce a 6$ delivery to only 0.3$ operation...

It is possible, but the big guys already have had development programs in place for quite some time. Small local delivery companies would be a good target. My first bit of marketing advice!
Very niche markets is what you are looking for. There are quite a few actually.

Thank you both for the info. It is great to be able to share some thoughts with people like you!

About the 4G connection: we are seeing drones are becoming pretty much a smartphone, so there are some options for 4G connectivity.

Yes James, mavproxy and Dronecode and DroneKit libraries are awesome. There are some tutorials out there.

Satcomms are contemplated as safety backup link. I guess that you guys are more interested on local applications so radio link+WiFI LAN and 4G would be more than enough right? But, imagine for an application for UPS: they would like to go global!

@ Vega Tech Group LLC, Just to clarify: we don’t want to move packages; we just want to sell the technology to the companies that do it and to people like you: innovators. Since we want the development to be open source!

It seems your systems are high calliper ones! Have you test them in flight? I would love to see them working!

Consulting on UAV deliveries may be a great job! Of course we invite toy to participate with us. We are still looking for funding more than FFFs, so you may imagine how our position right now is.